No family is going to locate to Jackson right now, I think we all know that. Even the folks who live in Eastover likely have some family tie to that area, and many of them are headed out to Madison too. Only people who would consider it are young people and older singles, and truth be known, there's not even really any nightlife scene downtown at the moment.In 2008 my wife and I were living in a small house in Ridgeland, and were looking for a bigger place to start a family. We looked at Jackson (mainly Belhaven and Fondren) and Madison. The biggest pros for Jackson were short commutes (we both worked downtown at the time) the neighborhoods were pretty and established, and a lot of the houses had cool, older-house features.
But Madison won almost every other category, and for me it strictly came down to money: I'm going to pay property/school taxes and buy car tags in both places, so which one is going to give me more for my money? Compared to Madison, Jackson's roads were rougher, its police and fire protection spottier, and its public schools were going to mean we'd wind up paying tuition to JA/First Pres-Prep for 18 years per kid. So for me it was a no-brainer as a financial decision.
That's why it's so important to form some consolidated downtown entertainment district, first and foremost.